A pseudo-customer cross-sectional study to evaluate the community pharmacist's management of migraine in pregnant women

Pharmacy Practice

  • Khalid Al Kubaisi1Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, College of Pharmacy, Sharjah University, Sharjah, Ajman University, clinical pharmacy master program, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
  • Sanah Hasan2Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
  • Nageeb AbdulGalil Hassan3College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
  • Asim Ahmed Elnour4Program of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi campus; AAU Health and Biomedical Research Center, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Volume 20 Issue 4 Pages 1-9

DOI: 10.18549/PharmPract.2022.4.2739

Abstract

Background: To the best of our knowledge few published studies have been conducted to evaluate customer's care services in community pharmacies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) using the pseudo-customer model. This further indicates that there is a paucity of information available about the current care services provided by the community pharmacists particularly for pregnant women with migraine. Objective: The main objective was to evaluate, the effectiveness of the pseudo-customer method on the care services (counseling, advice, and management) provided by the community pharmacists for migraine during pregnancy. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in community pharmacies with a cluster sampling of pharmacists. A sample of 200 community pharmacists was recruited from three emirates in the United Arab Emirates. Pregnant woman-related migraine management was assessed using the pseudo-customer model. The used script is not of a real patient but a fake/scripted used to describe the study. Results: No association was found between the gender and nationality of community pharmacists and the ability to be proactive (P =0.5, 0.568) and between the utilization of source of information and gender (P =0.31). The ability to prescribe by community pharmacists without probing or only after a probe was independent of job title (P =0.310); gender (P =0.44) and nationality (P =0.128). The community pharmacists who have offered written information have had significantly higher odds to dispense medication compared to those who have not (OR =45.547, 95% CI: 2.653 - 782.088, P =0.008). Furthermore, the pharmacists who have been reported to ask for precipitating factors of migraine had significantly higher odds to dispense medication compared to those who have not (OR =11.955, 95% CI: 1.083-131.948, P =0.043). The main outcome was the responses of the community pharmacists to the pseudo-customer visit (pregnant woman with migraine). Conclusions: The community pharmacist's care services (counseling, advice, and management) offered to the pseudo-customer visits was effective for dealing with migraine during pregnancy.

Keywords

  • community pharmacist
  • community pharmacy
  • migraine
  • pseudo-customer
  • pregnant woman
Pharmacy Practice

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